Blood Mother - The Night Fires

 

Blood Mother is the new project from Rick Giordano, composer/former member of a group called The Lion's Den, which ended last year. I was unfamiliar with both until two days ago, when I stumbled upon this track and it led me down a little bit of a rabbit hole that crescendoed in reading this.

 

Interesting snapshot of the state of things for an independent band in 2025/26. 

Part of that rabbit hole was discovering The Lion's Den's music, and I'm pretty blown away. I'm sure I'll post some here eventually, but in the meantime, you can check out their catalog on Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this new Faces of Death flick hitting theatres this week, but being that I'm in Chicago and can see it with friends, I figured we should cover it for The Horror Vision.

Other than its omnipresent shadow in the 80s/90s as a kind of specter-ish rite of passage I never succumbed to, I have no real relationship with the original films beyond feeling they're just kind of gross and indicative of everything that's wrong with humanity. That said, the writer in me is fascinated by this kind of thing, and when I found out it was the team that did Cam, my tentative curiosity began to pulse with a bit more anticipation. 

Ultimately, this film is fine. I can't say a hell of a lot more than that. I don't want to see things that I can't unsee, but I feel like by the very nature of what this is, it should have left me at least a little haunted. Nope. Definitely an engaging slasher/thriller, but in the end, I don't know, while I'll issue the blanket, "Support Horror in the theatre," I just didn't really care that much. There's a bit more breakdown and discussion on the latest episode of The Horror Vision, which you can hear on YouTube or wherever you stream your stories. There's also a widget to the right that will play it here.

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Playlist:

The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers

Motörhead - 1916

Nitro - O.F.R.

Skid Row - Slave to the Grind

Testament - Para Bellum

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Blood Mother - The Night Fires (single)

The Lion's Den - Bath House

Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Deftones - private music

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

Portishead - Third

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

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Card:

Still away from home, so I'm using my mini-Thoth. 

• Ace of Swords

• Two of Wands: Dominion

• V: The Hierophant

Collaboration from a breakthrough of the Will dissolves the mundane and creates something new. This is SPOT ON. I can't say much more yet, but it involves A) a promise I made to myself about my 50th year, and B) the day in the woods I described above.

New Music from Gnarls Barkley

Calling it now - there's almost no way anyone will release an album I love more than the new and totally unexpected Gnarls Barkley record that landed out of nowhere (from my perspective, at least) on March 6th. I caught wind of this last week, and have been unable to stop listening to it multiple times a day. Talk about coming from out of nowhere for a win!

You can order a copy from the group's webstore HERE.

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NCBD:

New Comic Book Day pulls for Wednesday, March 18, 2026:

I enjoyed the adaptation of Lovecraft's seminal short story in issue one of this mini-series, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the story progresses toward its inevitable ending. Or rather, how exactly we reach that ending. 

I LOVE that this cover was created sensitive to the HUGE change that occurred in Transformers 30, a book that literally floored me. Is this the beginning of an Autobot/Joe team-up? If Duke can get over himself, we might just get that.

We've winnowed away most of the killers and have a few spunky civilian survivors. Deals and agendas abound with the power elite behind the massacre and things are heating up for a final confrontation most will not walk away from. Need context? Check this book out! One of my favorites of 2025, we're poised to hit ground zero in two issues, so heads should really start to roll now...

And last but not least, Greg Rucka is writing a new Batwoman series and I am here for it. I don't really know anything about this character other than I've always dug this design. I did read some of the JH Williams III series from back in... I don't know, 2012, maybe? That was 100% about the art - I couldn't tell you anything about the story. With this new series, I'm here for Rucka. After recently reading his Lois Lane miniseries in TPB form and loving it, I'll follow this man to hell and back. 

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Watch:

Since we did our annual St. Paddy's celebration/State of Grace viewing this past Saturday, this evening we rewatched John Wright's Grabbers. 

"Residents of an island off the coast of Ireland learn that the only way to survive an invasion of blood-sucking aliens is to stay drunk." 

I originally saw this back circa 2019 for an episode of The Horror Vision. I really dug it that time, and did so again. The FX are mostly CG, but that's forgivable when you consider the size of this production and how much goddamn heart it has. Here's a trailer.

I can't stress enough what a good time I had with this one again. Wright's later film, Unwelcome, made my best-of list for 2023, and that's a very different kind of film, thus showing that Jon Wright is a filmmaker to keep an eye on. He doesn't currently have anything listed as "upcoming" on IMDb, but tonight was a good reminder to check in more often. 

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Playlist:

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

James Pants - Welcome

Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came

Atticus Derrickson - Black Phone 2 OST

High on Fire - Luminiferous

High on Fire - Electric Messiah

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Godflesh - Purge

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Card:

Setting aside Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot (which you can buy HERE.) for another Thoth pull:

• XV: The Devil

•  Two of Wands: Dominion

• Queen of Wands

Two Queen of Wands in a row? What's she trying to tell me? I read this simply as don't believe what they tell you, avoid the patriarchy and focus on love. Feels like this is a spread for america, not me. Either way, two Wands and ol' Scratch tell me to trust myself, not what others say. Definite work-related spread. 

The Art of Sleeping Alone at The Lighthouse

Recently picked this up from Burning Witches Records, which is distributed via Mondo/Death Waltz. Super cool electro album. With all the metal I've been listening to lately, I needed a new album like this.

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K and I saw The Lighthouse yesterday. Hmm. A lot to unpack. I'll link to my Letterbxd review HERE, and go on to say I've heard quite a few movies described as "a descent into madness" before, but this might be the most descending of any of those. Beautifully filmed. I mean beautifully. Looks like a movie from the 30s, even right down to the aspect ratio. If you're interested, see it in the theatre. Just for the shots of the waves breaking against the rocks.

31 Days of Horror:

10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31

10/02: Lords of Chaos

10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1

10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3

10/05: Bliss/VFW

10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog

10/07: Halloween 2018

10/08: Hell House, LLC

10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)

10/10: Creepshow Episode 3

10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)

10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena

10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween

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This past Wednesday I did another signing/release party for Shadow Play Book One: Kim and Jessie at The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, and it went very well! I sold almost every copy of both Kim and Jessie and my first book, A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror. I also moved quite a few Kindle copies of the new book, which was by design; trying to hit the new and noteworthy chart. Special thanks to Mike, Jun, Ben, Gerald, Luis, and all those awesome Comic Bug people, not to mention everyone that came out to support me.

Thanks to K for the picture!

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Playlist from the last few days:

John Carpenter/Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST
Tones on Tail - Everything
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone
Ulver - Teachings in Silence
Ritual Howls - Their Body EP
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
The Veils - Total Depravity
Sleep - The Sciences
The Sword - Age of Winters
Ministry - Filth Pig
1000 Homo DJs - Hey Asshole
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
The Nukes - Why Things Burn
Bauhaus - The Skys Gone Out

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Card of the day:

Both a reminder to listen to Sisters of Mercy today, and, despite having work today and the best Halloween party of the year tonight, a reminder to indulge a little of my creative energy today.

2019: June 4th Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Trailer!

To say I have extremely high hopes for this one is an understatement. I know, I know; that's never a good idea. That said, when was the last time GDT let us down?

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Good news! Just to prove I'm not an anti-DC Comics curmudgeon, I watched the first two episodes of the DCU app's Doom Patrol last night and it is AWESOME! So happy for this. A fabulous cast, dark yet often hilarious vibe - thanks in large part to Alan Tudyk's narration - and stories ripped right from Grant Morrison and Richard Case's seminal early late 80s/early 90s run, but altered in a way that really keeps the spirit of the book's madness. Such a joy to have this. Also, watching this made me realize it's probably been 12 or 13 years since I originally read Morrison and Case's run, so I'm starting that today. More like this DCU, please!



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Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - In the House of Strange Affairs
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult -  Confessions of a Knife
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits
Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips
Man or Astro-man? - 1000X
Man or Astro-man? - Intravenous Television Continuum
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 1: △△

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Card of the day:

Pure Will is what will be required from me to competently finish the novel; I've read this thing now multiple times, but it's been multiple versions as I've refined the plot. This was my first heavily plotted novel (my first novel that's going to see the light of day in a published capacity), and as such there's plot detritus hanging around my head from other versions. This final, post-Beta Reader go-through is to catch any last minute spelling or grammatical errors, neither of which should be possible at this point, as a human Beta Reader can miss something - though Missi didn't miss much - but Scrivener, Grammarly, and Vellum should not. I'm finding the first two have indeed missed a few small errors, and it's freaking me out. There's a predilection for reading absent-mindedly when you have had this much contact with something, and thus I'm requiring Pure Will to stay as focused as possible while reading. I'm roughly 40% of the way through, so I've adjusted my goal to end-of-week I order the first proof, so we'll see.

2019: April 27th: Netflix's Dark Ssn 2 Trailer

Finally! Netflix's Dark, Season Two drops June 21st, and I cannot wait. Season one blew me away, even if it did take me two go-throughs to 'get' it. There are just so many characters, many of which are old white men with beards, and on first pass, I found myself having a difficult time differentiating between some of them. Second pass though, all that confusion dissipated, and I fell hard into the story. Not gonna lie, I'm baulking a little at the idea of the apocalypse being a plot point in season two, but Dark definitely gets the benefit of the doubt with me.

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Woke up and watched Under the Silver Lake again, this time with K. Even better the second time. Love this film, and now Turning Teeth is stuck in my head.



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Playlist from 4/26:

Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Stevie Nicks - Stand Back (Single)
Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (Single)
Suburban Living - Video Love (Single)
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

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Card of the day:

Power given purpose and direction. A definite nod to Ciazarn, which I need to stop researching and begin writing, but also a cue to my short story Trending Now, which I am about to submit for a fairly high profile anthology.

2018: September 10th

Had this pretty little ditty in my head when I woke up, probably because it's used in a fantastic film John and I watched last night.



My friend John Grimm is still in town and we drove out to Hollywood last night. I brought him to the HWA meeting so he could make a few connections, and then we hit Scum and Villainy and The Beetle House, both pop-up bars that have hopefully become permanent. Scum and Villainy is designed after the Cantina from the original Star Wars. It's cool but small. The real joy was Beetle House, which is a bar/restaurant themed around Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. Really, really cool place.

Playlist from 9/09:

John Carpenter - The Thing OST
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
Earth - Primitive and Deadly
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun

Card of the day:

Twos represent balance and harmony. They are also of the Crown of Creation and not of the physical world. I'm taking this two ways right now. First, my interest in the idea of a Prime Mover has become more influential, so that it's working it's way into my daily thoughts. Not sure how that will play out with my writing, but I have several older projects that deal with this, so maybe I should think about dusting one off. Second, I've been doing yoga and it's helping me immensely, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Dominion can be seen as rule over self. Control.

2018: June 25th 5:27 AM

The Veils on my mind again:



Playlist from 6/24:

Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Beachhouse - 7
Barrie - Canyons (Single)

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Indicates you are in charge of the way your life is unfolding. Striking the harmonic resonance that sees events occur as we would like them to. Planning - Thoughtfullness - Mojo." - Spot on, as I've been giddy all morning thinking about the fact that I just finished writing a 75k novel (it's expanding a bit as I edit each chapter once more in Grammarly) in 7 months (6 when you figure I had about 1 month off for our move). I feel like everything is going exactly according to the plan I have set up. And that's a damn good feeling.